After three years of intense negotiations, the member states of the United Nations adopted the first agreement against cybercrime on Thursday, August 8, 2024. It aims to combat cybercrime more effectively.
Money laundering, online sexual abuse of children, and intercepting and selling private data – the UN agreement against cybercrime focuses on crimes that frequently occur on the internet and are so serious that they would result in a four-year prison sentence under national law. It obliges UN member states to provide mutual assistance in combating cybercrime, which is particularly beneficial for countries with limited resources, such as the Caribbean states.
Despite the positive intentions of the agreement, there are significant concerns. Human rights groups and Human Rights Watch fear that authoritarian states could misuse the agreement to persecute dissidents, opposition members, journalists, or homosexuals. Major tech companies criticize that the scope of the agreement is too broad and could lead to a global surveillance agreement.
In response to this criticism, the agreement was supplemented in recent weeks with two paragraphs guaranteeing the protection of human rights and allowing UN states to provide assistance in cases of suspected misuse for the persecution of disadvantaged groups. Nevertheless, criticism remains that the agreement contains extensive surveillance powers and fails to meet minimum standards for human rights and data protection.
The agreement, officially known as the “International Convention on Countering the Use of Information and Communication Technologies for Criminal Purposes,” still needs to be officially adopted by the UN General Assembly in September. Before it comes into force, at least 40 UN member states must ratify it. For EU member states, this will be done at the EU level.
It remains to be seen how the implementation of this agreement will look in practice and what impact it will have on the global cyber landscape.
Mitgliedstaaten der Vereinten Nationen nehmen nach drei Jahren intensiver Verhandlungen das erste Abkommen gegen Cyberkriminalität an. Es zielt darauf ab, Cyberkriminalität effektiver zu bekämpfen.
Das UN-Abkommen gegen Cyberkriminalität konzentriert sich auf schwere Internetverbrechen wie Geldwäsche, sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern sowie den Verkauf privater Daten im Netz. Es fordert die UN-Mitgliedsstaaten zur Zusammenarbeit auf, was besonders für Staaten mit begrenzten Ressourcen vorteilhaft ist.
Trotz der positiven Absichten gibt es Bedenken. Menschenrechtsgruppen und Human Rights Watch befürchten, dass autoritäre Staaten das Abkommen zur Verfolgung von Andersdenkenden missbrauchen könnten. Tech-Unternehmen kritisieren, der Geltungsbereich des Abkommens sei zu weit gefasst und könne auf ein globales Überwachungsabkommen hinauslaufen.
Das Abkommen, offiziell "International Convention on Countering the Use of Information and Communication Technologies for Criminal Purposes", muss noch von der UN-Generalversammlung verabschiedet werden. Bevor es in Kraft tritt, müssen es mindestens 40 UN-Mitgliedsstaaten ratifizieren. Die Auswirkungen auf die globale Cyberlandschaft bleiben abzuwarten.
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